WRC convenes for second meeting

By Jen Fish

Daily Staff Reporter

Eight months after the University joined the Worker Rights Consortium, the organization's governing board gathered this week in Washington, D.C., for its second meeting.

The WRC, a newly formed monitoring organization for the collegiate apparel industry, was developed primarily by students as an alternative to the Fair Labor Association - a White House-sponsored coalition of human rights groups and corporations that has come under fire during the past year for its relationship with apparel manufacturers.

Members of the WRC governing board, which is composed equally of representatives from universities, human rights groups and student activists, said their organization has made great progress since its inaugural meeting in April. Specifically, the board approved several changes to the organizations' bylaws, filed for nonprofit status and reduced its list of executive director candidates to five.

"It was a very successful meeting," WRC coordinator Maria Roeper said. "The most important thing is that the board lay the groundwork for other work to happen."

Roeper and other members of the governing board agreed the hiring of a new executive director is imperative to the organization's future development.

WRC secretary Peter Romer-Friedman, an RC senior and member of Students Organizing for Labor and Economic Equality, said the WRC should begin interviewing candidates within the next two weeks.

The board members also agreed to change the number of votes needed to amend the organization's bylaws. Representatives from some universities, Romer-Friedman said, had expressed concern that only a simple majority had been needed to amend the bylaws. Now any changes to the bylaws must be approved by a two-thirds vote.

The board also approved a committee to oversee pilot projects to be implemented in the next few months in at least three different countries, Romer-Friedman said.

"A great deal of institution building has happened since April - I've been quite impressed," said governing board member Dan Long, a University of Wisconsin graduate student.

Roeper said the schools like the University of Michigan that joined the WRC on a provisional basis should be pleased with the group's progress.

"I think it's unreasonable to expect that we had implemented a monitoring system by now or something like that. If their provisions are reasonable, ... I think they should be satisfied."

Long, Romer-Friedman and Roeper all said students and administrators, many of whom were bitter enemies just a few months ago, are on good terms.

The University joined the WRC on a provisional basis in February along with the University of Wisconsin at Madison and Indiana University after SOLE members occupied the office of LSA Dean Shirley Neuman for three days.

In the months preceding the WRC's inaugural meeting, student activists across the nation urged their universities to join the WRC and reject the FLA.

During the protests, more than 100 students were arrested at various schools, 54 in Madison alone.

But now that adversarial relationship seems to be gone or at least put on hold for the greater good of the WRC.

"Most of the decisions were made by consensus - unanimous vote most of the time," Roeper said. "While our structure is based on votes, there is a real spirit of wanting to work together."

Romer Friedman agreed, saying the universities, students and human rights groups "are working extremely well together. The mood and relationships among the governing board members are extremely positive."